Everything about becoming an internationally adoptive parent opens eyes and hearts to this big old world of ours, and redefines our place in it. With our children bound to us by unbreakable threads of love and family, their roots entangle with ours, and the soil of their beginnings can never be foreign again.

With the expansion of boundaries that comes with a feeling of more global citizenship, is it any surprise that we look for ways to do what we can to make the world a better place?

In researching various programs that provide assistance to many of the countries we adopt from, I've found some organizations that deserve attention. I'm focusing today on groups that coordinate volunteers doing work all over the world.

All of these programs require payment that covers upkeep of volunteers, internal transport, and so on, so anyone interested needs to take a good look at the whole picture, gather info on the organization and so on.

Whether a person is is looking to donate a couple of weeks or a year or more to work on the behalf of others, volunteering time, resources and energy can be rewarding to the point of seeming almost selfish, but good programs ensure that the recipients of others' efforts get as much out of the deal as those doing the volunteering.

As our kids get older, it may be that family holidays or kids' vacations take a turn away from amusement parks and pampering camps and become lessons in making a difference while learning life lessons. In fact, reading through websites of these organizations has me salivating ... yearning ... like some people do when looking through travel brochures about Tahitian holidays or Spring in Paris.

Interested in Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, or Vietnam? The Global Volunteer Network out of New Zealand provides volunteer opportunities in communities around the world.

Our vision is to support the work of local community organizations in developing countries through the placement of international volunteers. We believe that local communities are in the best position to determine their needs, and we provide volunteers to help them achieve their goals.

Here's an example of one of their programs ... a 13-week teaching gig ... in Cambodia:

Volunteers will be working as language teachers in a school project which provides affordable conversational English language courses for students. The aim of this project is to raise money for a local NGO working to improve livelihoods in rural communities in Cambodia. Students pay a small fee to attend the classes. . In the past, the money raised by the language centre has been used to improve water and sanitation, for small livestock and agriculture production and for community environmental awareness in rural Cambodia.

Volunteers teach conversational English classes which have around 10 students in each class. All students and teachers have books, from which to learn and teach. There is scope for volunteers to include their own exercises/games into each class. Most volunteers work around 4 hours a day (20 hours per week).

To do this you must be a native English speaker, at least 18 years old, healthy and enthusiastic with "cultural sensitivity and respect." Details of costs and such are on the site.

They also have opportunities to work in orphanages in Viet Nam near Da Nang in Tam Ky, Hue and Cu Lao Cham Island.

The India Orphanage Volunteer Project has programs that run year round and range from one to two weeks to more than three months.

Description: Despite its rapid development, there are thousands of kids living in the orphanages in India. Local organizations running orphanage programs are running out of resources and manpower. So, the help of international volunteers is greatly needed and appreciated. As a volunteer in the orphanage, you will mostly be involved in teaching English. Volunteers can teach other subjects and help the orphans to understand the importance of hygiene, sanitation and good manners, and help them with their homework. Additional help in distributing food, organizing creative activities like game, painting, drawing, and maintaining the compound can be expected.

I'm not sure about the 'good manners', but the program sounds worthwhile, nonetheless.

If your ties are to Nepal, here's a program that works with children between the ages of four and fifteen.

And the "Rodopski pansion" in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a "social home" housing more that 140 children, offers opportunities to work with children in that country.

If Peru tugs at your heart, an orphanage in Huancayo accepts volunteers.

Casa Guatemala has many different opportunities for both skilled and unskilled volunteer workers.

Continued ...